The Illustrative History of Saint Patrick’s Day

Saint Patrick’s Day—a one day annual event where you wear green or be harassed. But why? Who is this Saint Patrick? Why’s he important? What’s with the clovers?

By: Duronto Pablo

Named Saint Patrick’s Day, the annual celebration on March 17th is the day of Saint Patrick’s death in the 5th century. Observed as a religious holiday for roughly a millennium by the Irish, St. Patrick’s day happens in the Christian season of Lent (wherein there is fasting and eating meat is prohibited). The day has people going to church in the morning and has a celebration in the afternoon that waives all the restrictions of the season, and thus has much celebration.

Saint Patrick himself, despite being a religious Irish icon, wasn’t actually Irish—rather, he was born in Britain in the 5th century. At the age of 16, he was kidnapped by Irish raiders and put into slavery in Ireland, where he spent six years as a herdsman. During this unfortunate circumstance, he turned to Christianity. When he fled his master and returned to his family, he was implored by Irishmen in a letter titled “The Voice of the Irish” to come back. He was reluctant at first, but when he set foot in Ireland he regained his confidence in the Lord and set to baptizing and confirming Christianity across the landmass. Thus he is credited with bringing Christianity to Ireland. Near the end of his life, he was supposedly told by an angel that he was to die in Saul, a village in County Down, even though he’d wanted to die in Armagh, the metropolis of Ireland (and where he’d set up a church). In saintly fashion, he retired to Saul and died in its monastery.

Post-mortem, legends naturally developed around Saint Patrick.  One told that he’d driven all the snakes of Ireland into the ocean, where they died. Another reported that he had once prayed for the provisions for a group of sailors traversing a barren sea, and subsequently they found a herd of cattle. The man himself recounted him resurrecting 33 dead men from the grave.

The most popular legend, in all of this, was where he explained the concept of the Holy Trinity (The Father, The Son, The Holy Spirit) to a non-believer with a shamrock (clover), the national flower of Ireland. In suit of this, the shamrock is common apparel when celebrating St. Patrick’s Day.

The event of St. Patrick’s day has been observed since the 9th or 10th century, but the first parade had happened in the US, rather than Ireland, in 1601. It was held in a Spanish colony, now St. Augustine, Florida, and was organized by Ricardo Artur, an Irish vicar (a representative/deputy of the bishop). A lengthy time later, in 1772, Irish soldiers under the British Army marched in New York City to honor Patrick. With that, enthusiasm for Saint Patrick commemoration grew in notable cities like Boston and the others aforementioned.

Irish patriotism amongst American immigrants following this spurred annual parades with things like bagpipes and drums. In 1848, various New York Irish Aid societies united their parades into one official New York City St. Patrick’s Day Parade, which is now the oldest civilian parade in the world and the largest in the US, with roughly 150,000 participants and spectators in the millions. 

In the midst of these developments, the aspects of leprechauns (“small-bodied figure”) became prominent. Leprechauns are figures of Irish folklore, and they were generally unhappy, as their job was to mend the shoes of fairies. They’re also the guys with pots of gold at the end of rainbows. During St. Patrick’s Day, if you weren’t wearing green, leprechauns (the general public) would pinch (or punch) you.

Sources – 

https://www.history.com/topics/st-patricks-day/history-of-st-patricks-day

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Patrick